I currently only own one intact male. His health tests have been mostly done, he needs a CERF exam, and if I want his CHIC# I'd have to get his PRA genetic test done, even though he's an obligate B.

When I get a little more time and a few more titles on him maybe someone will want to breed to him, but I'm not counting on it. In the next couple of years I'll either lease a bitch to breed to him (unlikely), or I'll buy another puppy, a bitch this time.

I'm not counting Zen out of my breeding program, but I'm not basing my whole program on a male. If I have to buy another bitch, she probably won't be bred to him, at that point, I'll probably have him collected and neutered.

I have bred a total of four litters. Jagger and Loki was the first one and was unplanned, which is where Zette is from. One of those pups lives with my friend and does agility and obedience, the rest are in pet homes. Then I bred Belle to an older male named Monte (who's still around and is 17 now) and that's the litter my mom's Cherry is from. That litter was very successful - Cherry has lots of titles in agility, rally, is one point from a GrCH and was RWB at the National. One of her siblings has been ranked in conformation and another is finished with advanced agility/OB titles and another is a really nice agility dog. I got the dog back who was ranked in conformation through no fault of his own at 4 years old and he now lives with friends of mine and does some agility. I bred Loki to Jagger's half brother Dante but only got 2 puppies, one is in a pretty serious (OTCH plans) OB home, the other is a much loved pet. With Belle's second litter I bred her to Loki's brother Primo. That was a whatever can go wrong will go wrong litter. One puppy had hydrocephalus, the litter came down with Parvo at 6 weeks old and the puppy a friend of mine was going to take died. I got the rest through Parvo and two developed bacterial infections under their skin. That cleared up and by time all was said and done and they could be placed, they were 12 weeks old. Belle's breeder co-bred both of her litters and wasn't of a great deal of help. She placed one of the puppies with someone as a replacement for a dog with a "bad temperament". That woman had an accidental litter with her at 14 months, had a falling out with the co-breeder who she co-owned the dog with and gave her back to me. The dog was so upset about losing her home, very sad. She was very guardy, so it took me two years to find her an appropriate home. The boy pup was was the very sickest with parvo lives a great life in a pet home in CA. A friend of mine has a girl from the litter and does agility and obedience with her. Unfortunately, Belle also developed atypical Pannus after having the litter which several of her puppies also have. It's by far not the worst that could happen as far as late onset genetic issues go but it was very, very disappointing. So that in a nutshell is the good and bad about breeding. It's awesome to have puppies who turn out well and who's owners adore them. It can be hard getting back adult dogs and placing them. And it's heartbreaking when things go wrong.

In addition to those litters, I placed a litter of accidental puppies out of Cherry's sister Tru. 11 puppies in all, born by c-section and Tru's owners bottle raised them. At 8 weeks I brought half of them here and at 10 weeks, I brought the other half here. Several of those puppies are in performance homes and the rest are in pet homes. They are a wild bunch, high drive and crazy but all pretty small. This summer I took 2 puppies from another accidental litter and placed them. I had no ties to this litter other than a friend of mine was placing them. Both of those puppies are in pet homes and doing very well. Yes there are a lot of accidental Belgian litters, the breed has excellent reproductive health

I have plans to possibly breed Whimsy next year, providing everything turns out with her and her littermates. If it all works out she'll be 4+ for her first litter. I much prefer to wait until that age and to use older males if possible, as the main health concern in the breed is one which can't be tested for.

I'm not sure if I want to breed- it's something I go back and forth on. Emma was supposed to be shown, and possibly bred after getting her CH and health testing. She ended up being less than 3lbs before she was a year old, so we had her spayed for safety issues (at the time, we had 2 unfixed males). She's almost two and still at 3lbs, so obviously she never would've been able to safely be bred. I'm living vicariously through her sister's owner, though. He's working on her CH and is going to hopefully breed her if everything goes well.

I'm not sure I couldn't handle the possibility of losing the mother during birth. That's the one thing that always makes me feel I couldn't handle being a breeder.

Possibly something I'm looking into for the future puppy. Only if she and the potential sire pass health clearances, is titled and has a stellar temperament.

Classic was purchased as show potential on a co-own with a breeding contract. However, I felt his temperament wasn't the best and after long debates finally convinced his breeder to let me neuter him. I would have been devastated if his breeder didn't break off that contract and bred him like she wanted.

Because at that time I had Revy, Ada, Kaylee and Ronin.... and then I said I'd take Jayne to avoid him being euthanized... so we were over our comfort level. Five is not ideal for me, six would have been madness. If I'd known Ronin was going to die three months after the puppies were born I would have kept one... but no one knows these things beforehand.